


Extinction

by Pardra



Category: Rockman DASH Series | Mega Man Legends, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Injury, Pre-Canon, reaverbots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pardra/pseuds/Pardra
Summary: "Aberrant mechaniloid behavior detected."What happened to what must have once been a thriving population on Calbania Island, seen through the eyes of its Bureaucratic Unit. Set pre-Legends.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Extinction

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually for an RP between myself and Shreedle, but it's also my headcanon. There's some mention of genocide, eugenics are implied, as well as death, but I promise it's very mild for me. Please leave a kudos or review if you enjoyed! I do intend to do more Legends stuff.

Everything was going smoothly, as it had for the last five Reinitializations on the island known as Calbania. Ceres stared at the monitor, watching the numbers balance out. Carbons were so industrious, and they reproduced so quickly, not to mention how frequently they survived things they honestly had no business surviving. It wasn’t uncommon for improperly dealt with Carbons to simply make a new limb and continue on, which was fine, better genes.

It focused its mechaniloids on the city, particularly the areas where the systems had recorded increased crime. It much preferred wiping out the more aggressive Carbons, to keep them form massacring themselves. Not to mention the time a particularly nasty group of them had decided to attempt to plunder everything in its base—including the walls and doors. It had not let that stand, of course, and everything had been put back in its rightful place.

The Bureaucratic Unit settled back in its alcove, hovering between the intense compulsion for stasis and the pressure to check its messages. Several said they were urgent, but if none contained the coveted keywords, it did not care. What did it matter to a not-Mother unit what other Mother units and the Master were doing, they did not concern it. There was no need for niceties and relation-building if the bonds were useless. Ceres was put away neatly until a time when it might be needed.

It exhaled sharply and laid back, content to let the mechaniloids do their job.

…

…Its eyes opened. The monitor was blaring an obnoxious warning, filling the dim room with a red glow. Ceres leapt from its resting place and in four quick strides had reached the console, unable to comprehend what it was seeing. Hearing.

Carbon population critically low. Extinction of colony imminent. 

What. 

Several warnings of downed mechaniloids, that was to be expected because Carbons didn’t go quietly. But it increased steadily even as the Carbon population went down drastically. Either the Carbons had some heavy artillery or…

Aberrant mechaniloid behavior detected. 

Ceres whirled on its heel and fled for the lift, down the hall in near perfect darkness, illuminated only by the sensors in the walls and the curious optics watching. Its limbs trembled with anticipation as the lift rose to the upper level, all System-imposed compulsions to be in stasis overridden by programming to protect what belonged to it. It was sprinting for the exit before the lift had stopped fully, and then was out in the choking air.

The smell of blood and metal and burnt things assaulted it as it turned toward the last few remaining signatures.

…

Ceres let the Sharukurusu feint toward it, leaping aside at the last minute and then cleaving it in half with its whip, humming angrily. How dare they.

The city was decimated, a sheet of orange and smoke in the distance. There was no one left alive there. Ruined, the island was ruined, there was no way that the population could recover from this. The small seaside town was all that remained, and that, barely so. Metal and flesh littered the scorched earth.

Its sensors insisted that there were some left, and then he heard the thin, high wail of a young Carbon. 

“I gave orders.” It said, stepping over the remains of some wooden fencing that had fallen on a Carbon’s remains. “Disobedience will not be tolerated.”

A Horroko trundled insistently toward it, but Ceres dealt it a swift kick, knocking it to the ground where it twitched and shuddered. Another red Sharukurusu blazed past it, clashing with its Aberrant kin as it tried to smash a wooden table. There was a small, trembling form under it. This had been a house once.

Ceres reached under the table and grabbed the Carbon, hauling it out so its vitality could be ascertained. Their eyes met. Wide, wet grey eyes peering into flat gold. Ceres had never seen one this close before, allowed itself to be careless. It was not entirely a surprise when the red, four-pronged spear pierced its side, but it was to the Carbon. The creature let out a startled shriek and wriggled free of his grasp, fleeing into a house nearby. Ceres wanted to shout at it, but then it reappeared with two small, squalling bundles under either arm and fled to the plains away from the city and the base. 

The Unit felt itself being lifted, hurled high into the air. It was pleasant until weightlessness was replaced with rock and splinter and ember. It lay there, staring at the sky, a half dozen warnings cluttering its HUD, which it promptly dismissed; the fires were so bright that night that only Eden’s distant spark and Elysium were visible above. Its whip was missing, probably hurled further than its owner. The beam knife at its hip was secure still.

The dark, sharp silhouette of the Sharukurusu blotted out his view of Elysium, its arms rotating in anticipation. That was the first time the Unit felt rage.

Ceres roared and sprang from the pile of wreckage, gloves scrabbling at the mechaniloid’s optic. Without its self-preservation programming in tact, it didn’t recoil, its arm slicing into Ceres’ left thigh, scoring it from knee to hip as it drove its knee into the mechaniloid’s vented chest. The beam knife, glowing bright, sank into the bright optic with finality and everything went still.

The Unit crouched there a moment, suspicious. Nothing moved. Slowly, it rose, stepped stiffly from the mechaniloid’s chest. That had been the last Aberrant, of that Ceres was certain. The non-Aberrants stood, watching their Bureaucratic Unit expectantly. The threat was dealt with.

Ceres suddenly felt the urge to go into stasis. 

“Leave those children alone,” it said imperiously, looking neither left nor right as it began the more leisurely return to the base. 

This could be remedied. It need only take some excess Carbons from the other Bureaucratic Units, the less important ones. Perhaps from Manda, it thought, blocking the incoming warnings. Yes, there was damage to be dealt with, in body and in processor, given the irrational thoughts and lack of discomfort. It need only return to its capsule and go into stasis.

The entrance slid open readily, the lift took him directly down, past the shallow floors and the refractor. It stepped off the lift, toward the cool glow of the monitor. 

Stasis.

Ceres blinked, trying to comprehend what it was seeing. The walls were growing taller? No, Ceres was on the floor, its legs wouldn’t respond.

Stasis. Go back into stasis.

Obediently, the Unit reached out first with one hand, then the other, dragging itself slowly along the floor. Its left leg and side throbbed painlessly. Its fingers wouldn’t open now, it felt heavy.

“Ridiculous… This Unit didn’t even get to see Elysium again…”

STASIS.

Ceres let its heavy head rest gently on the floor, between its hands. 

Who was going to take care of its island now?


End file.
